I am working on a business directory website. It basically has the following structure.

Service Type Page - www.example.com/service-name/

State Page - www.example.com/service-name/california/

City Page - www.example.com/service-name/california/san-jose

I am planning to use Select2 JS library for autocomplete search and select of cities from the state page.

I am not sure, how much of javascript code can google read on a page these days. So, I am worried that google might see these filters as links because these drop down items are actually links generated through javascript.

Now, there are over 600 cities in California. I know having 600 links on a page is definitely not a good idea. So, what's the best way to provide users with filters without getting penalized by the search engines (google) for having too many links on the page?

------Edited-----

I am not asking how to index 600 city pages in google. I know I have to submit a sitemap for that. I am asking how to show the city filter to users (with large dataset) so they can choose their city out of say 600 cities without google reading these filter links and penalizing the page for having too many links. Also, I don't care much about visitors with javascript disabled for this filter.

1 Answer
1

First of Google does not search or fill up information like user did, so do not worry about 600 links, that is generated only when user enter any alphabet. Yes Googlebot execute JS very well, but they don't feel alphabet in search box. Hope it clear your doubt.

From SEO perspective, I will do same breadcrumb navigation as like permalink in webpages, so Google can crawl and flow pagerank (juicylink) easily.

I understand that googlebot can't fill in the alphabets, but I am talking about select box where links are generated using javascript and auto-complete functionality is provided by select2. I have added the code in the question. Also, if you know any other way of doing this, then, let me know.
– AakashJan 28 '16 at 13:22

Googlebot don't do any thing if it is empty box, no matter whether it is Dropbox or auto complete search box. Googlebot execute javascript only, if it is reference somewhere on webpage, for example, if you are using button to load comments with js, then it can be execute, because googlebot crawl that thing from button, so if there is nothing like button or links, then google-bot never crawl such a thing. Hope it clear.
– GoylloJan 29 '16 at 7:14